


Flowers After the Fire

by cynx_17_kh



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: M/M, Mipha is still dead i'm sorry, No Dialogue, Nonbinary Link, Post-Calamity Ganon, link is referred to with they/them pronouns!, zelda is mentioned in passing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:23:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynx_17_kh/pseuds/cynx_17_kh
Summary: Link pays a long overdue visit to the Zora Prince after finally defeating Calamity Ganon. They can finally rest for a while, and they're very happy about it.





	Flowers After the Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've written anything for BotW, let alone LoZ! I really hope that you all enjoy it. Writing as Link was almost cathartic to me. I've played nearly 400 hours of the game and it was really nice to pay some homage to the beautiful scenary and wonderful gameplay. I'm hoping to write more for this pairing in the future, so if you like it, be sure to keep an eye out for more!
> 
> I wrote this as a prompt fill for my writer's group. The prompt was a songfic challenge, but different than normal! We had to use a song without any lyrics as inspiration for the piece, so I used the Zora's Domain theme (both the [day](www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKakZMQAZm0) and [night](www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe4Plb8HSQs) versions) and had them on repeat while I wrote it! I took on an extra challenge by not having any dialogue, and I think that it went really well!

Weeks had begun to blur together for Link since they defeated Calamity Ganon once and for all. All of their time immediately following the defeat was spent helping Princess Zelda recover, as she had done for them 100 years prior. After that, though… Link was told that they were free to take as long of a vacation from their hero work as they wanted too. Zelda had insisted upon it, actually. She said that Link must have made plenty of new friends and companions before rescuing her at Hyrule Castle, and insisted that they go visit them to assure everyone that the Hero of Hyrule did not perish in the final battle with Ganon. 

Link had bowed to her respectfully, as was their duty as her appointed knight, but she just laughed and bid him farewell, mentioning something along the lines of ‘old habits die hard’ as they walked away from her. As Link walked, they knew that the first place they wanted to go was a considerably long journey by foot, and they didn’t want to walk all the way there. It was a lovely road leading to the Domain, however, they simply couldn’t wait to tell their beloved everything that had happened since they last met.

Using the Sheikah Slate, they went to the map and tapped on the Ne'ez Yohma Shrine, teleporting all the way to the heart of the Zora’s Domain. When they rematerialized at the shrine, Link took a deep breath of the fresh, slightly salty air. The shrine was in a shallow pond that had fleet lotus seeds growing around it. Directly in front of where they were standing, a bright-eyed crab scuttled by in a carefree manner that almost seemed lackadaisical in nature. They walked forward towards the stairs slowly so as not to disturb the crab and made his way up towards the center of the town where Mipha’s statue was. They moved to where they could look up at her face and smiled gently.

They missed Mipha dearly, but after speaking with her in the Divine Beast Ruta, Link felt more at ease knowing that at least her spirit was free. With their memories fully restored from before their 100 year slumber, looking at Mipha’s statue always caused a heart pang. She was one of the only people that Link had truly loved, and being gifted the Zora armor chest piece upon their return to the Domain made their heart hurt even more when they wore it. Mipha had made them that armor by hand with the intent to use it to propose to Link after Calamity Ganon was defeated, but fate unfortunately had other plans for both Mipha and Link.

In a way, Link was almost grateful for the way that things went. When they got to speak with Mipha again after defeating Waterblight Ganon, it gave them the chance to tell her about how things were going with Sidon and how, surprisingly enough, they were falling in love. She received the news so well that she tried to give them a hug, and sighed in defeat when she passed through them. Mipha was happy that Link was able to move on, even though they didn’t have all of their memories. She had asked them not to feel bad about forgetting her and just to take care of her little brother, so that’s what they did. 

Realizing that they had been just standing at the base of her statue for a few minutes reminiscing and missing her, they turned around and spotted some of the girls in the ‘Prince Sidon Fan Club’ pointing and whispering. They waved at the group and they giggled and ran off. Link furrowed their brow; that wasn’t the normal interaction that they’d had in the past. Normally, the girls would come over and see if they had the time to gush about Sidon because they all knew that Link was very in love with the Zora prince. They wondered what had gotten into the girls, but shrugged it off. They had more important things to worry about and a tall prince to find. It was midday, so he was probably somewhere near the throne room.

As they begun climbing up the stairs to the throne room, they caught sight of his beloved’s red shark tail on his head. Their heart skipped a beat and they started smiling widely. Link ran up the stairs and whistled a small pattern to get Sidon’s attention. The tall Zora turned and saw nothing but a streak of blond hair before feeling a collision against his legs with arms wrapped around his middle. He let out a deep chuckle and picked up the small Hylian that was clinging to his body. The two embraced and Link buried their face into Sidon’s neck, nuzzling twice to communicate that they missed him. In response, he kissed their shoulder gently. 

When Link had first visited the Domain after waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection and the two had started spending more time together, Link taught Sidon some basic sign language that they remembered. They also came up with some simple gestures that meant things to them, but to no one else. It was amazing how quickly they had grown close in the time that Link had spent in the Domain. Once they left to continue freeing the Divine Beasts, they made frequent visits to spend time with Sidon and enjoy the sun reflecting off of the luminous stones that made up the beautiful architecture of the city. 

They stood in front of the throne room holding each other for what felt like ages. Neither one could tell just how long it had been, but they also didn’t care. Link felt silent tears on their shoulder from Sidon and they squeezed him extra hard to let him know that they were okay, getting more comfortable in his arms by wrapping their legs around the Zora’s middle as best they could. They leaned back and looked him in the eyes with a soft smile and a hand on his cheek. They kissed the tip of his nose gently and wiped a tear away, just happy to be in the arms of their love. 

Sidon then started playfully poking and prodding Link’s body to check for bumps, bruises, and broken bones. They had to stifle their laughter as the poking turned into tickling. A huge smile spread across both of their faces and it was clear that they were going to be okay. Link was ready to take a nice long vacation in the Zora’s Domain, and maybe, just maybe, settle down for good there.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey hey hey everyone! I know it's been a hot minute since I've posted anything and guess what? There's a lot of new stuff I've got going on! Those of you reading my work for the first time, welcome! I hope you enjoyed and I hope you stay for other pieces! Those of you who are returning readers, thank you so much for sticking with me through my many dry spells. Tumblr has essentially shit the bed, so I'm most active on Twitter now, so that's all I'll be linking from now on! As always, if you enjoyed, leave a kudos, and if you want more, drop a comment!
> 
> ~Social Media~
> 
> BNHA: [@how2trainurkiri](https://twitter.com/how2trainurkiri) / [@how2f_ckurkiri](https://twitter.com/how2f_ckurkiri)  
> YOI: [@otabaeplisetsky](https://twitter.com/otabaeplisetsky)  
> Personal/KH: [@cynx_17_kh](https://twitter.com/cynx_17_kh)
> 
> A collection of my links and info can be found [here](https://twitter.com/how2trainurkiri/status/1113094856711327744)! If you want to support my writing, please consider checking out that link!


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